Disclaimer: I do not own Silent Hill. Silent Hill © belongs to, and will forever belong to, Konami. This is non-profit only. I only own the characters in this story.
Author's Notes: Special thanks to my best friend in the whole wide world, Neo, for helping me create, making me understand, and giving me the knowledge to get this story up and running. Thanks!
Rating: M for violence, sexual themes, language
Summary: For months, she wanted to know the truth about her brother's sudden disappearance. But to find the truth, she seeks to unravel the lies she's created.
BEFORE READING: Every chapter title (including the prologue) is the name of a Silent Hill song. So if you want to get into the real 'mood', then I suggest listening to the song whilst reading.
The Truth That Lies
Prologue: Silent Hill
The wipers of Kyla Donovan's car were going back and forth rapidly – the beating and whining as they wisped over the water fogged glass being the only noise in the car besides the quiet whisper of her own breath.
She'd long since grown bored with the radio, a mish-mash of folk stations and oldies tunes seemingly all there was to offer out here, and turned it off.
Taking her green eyes off the road momentarily, she looked down at her cell phone – hoping to find a text message from one of her friends... or even her damned boss calling to let her know she's fired for not leaving notice before her sudden vacation… just something to make up for the utter nothingness she was stuck with to look at thanks to this weather, and a rolling fog that had crept in long before it began to rain.
The wheel jerked in her hands as the rain soaked tarmac turned too slick under her car's old tires for a moment until she could feather the brakes, hands holding a little tighter as she returned her wondering attention to the road.
It was dangerous weather to be distracted in.
She cursed under her breath in annoyance, deciding that spinning out on a deserted road, in the middle of nowhere, in weather her headlights could barely cut through even on full beam, was not a great life choice.
A groggy pounding in her head, and a scratchy feeling behind her eyes as if someone had jammed cotton wool behind them, convinced her that maybe she should take a break before she did something really stupid and ended up part of one of the towering pines that lined the featureless asphalt lake that was the road.
Pressing her right foot down on the brake, and trying not to grit her teeth as the old rust bucket she was driving wailed in protest, felt herself slowing down.
When the car finally came to a complete stop, she sat back, setting the car in neutral and flicking off the engine with a lazy turn of the key.
Kyla let her head loll back listlessly, rubbing at her eyes and growling in that semi-frustrated way a person does when they're tired but know they can't sleep just yet.
Sighing, she opened one eye and stared at the patterns made by the rain on her windshield; the outside world a complete blur without the wipers to battle the ever-present water that sought to hide the world from her.
All she could make out were varying shades of gray, one for the land, one for the sky, and one for the fog in between them.
It felt as though she was on an endless road to nowhere.
Glancing at her phone where it rested on her passenger seat, her sole companion on this journey, she read the time.
10:43 pm… She was surprised to realize she'd been driving for over eight hours, though it would explain why her stomach had been growling for the past few miles, and a quick look showed that she wasn't the only one running on empty; she was almost out of gas.
I knew I should have stopped at the gas station an hour ago...
She squinted, hoping against hope that there would be some signs of life out there somewhere, a service station, anything. For a moment, there was nothing. Then, almost as if the fog and rain had peeled back just enough for her to see it, large board seemed to materialize; dangling on rotting wooden posts at the side of the road.
"The hell...?"
She started her car and drove closer, hoping to see what it said.
As she arrived at the green sign, she read it aloud and felt her heart start beating irregularly.
"Welcome To Silent Hill," the sign said, the white words painted over an aging wooden green sign.
It's about damn time...
She reached for the brochure on Silent Hill she printed from the library computers back home, holding it up in front of her, the sunny scene in the photo on the cover- taken presumably from more or less where she now sat- was a lot different than the miserable, wet landscape that currently surrounded her mobile shelter.
"A nice, cozy town in Toluca County, Virginia. Come here for all your vacation needs."
"In this fog?" Kyla questioned skeptically, once more contrasting the picture with the reality, "yeah, right..."
Rolling her eyes, she tossed the paper aside and drove towards the gloomy town.
However, being afraid of having another 'almost accident' like last time, she drove slowly, especially as the land sloped away from the road to her right quite suddenly the closer she got to town, just the tips of the tallest trees down below making it above the fog.
She sighed with relief when the first building in the town finally came into view. A squat, brick construct, it was presumably once bright red, though age had darkened the once vibrant brick a muddy brown color. She squinted to make out the name.
"Silent Hill Historical... Society?"
Well it was good to know she was in the right place at least, though old books and stuffy historians couldn't help her much with her gas problem, or find her lodgings, so she drove on.
Kyla turned a corner and pulled into the gas station – Texxon Gas, one of the most famous gas chains in America. Pulling up next to one of the pumps, Kyla stuffed her cell phone into her pocket and clambered out of the car quickly, her jacket over her head in a feeble attempt to block out the rain.
With many an unpleasant speculation of the parentage, intelligence and sexual orientation of her car she was able to convince it's stubborn petrol cap to yield and impatiently counted down the minutes until the tank was full.
"Shit, shit, shit! Come on! This is cold!" she hissed, abandoning the car once it was done, and the pump was returned and fleeing for the shelter of the station proper.
The door opened with a loud and grating creak rather than the pleasant jingle of a bell, but she was more concerned with being out of the rain than having her illusions of rustic charm despoiled.
Shaking off her drenched jacket, the brunette made her way to the counter, idly scanning the oddly sparse shelves for a quick snack for her rebellious stomach before it decided to break free and go in search of its own lunch.
Slowly she came to a stop.
Strewn over the counter was a torn paper bag, its many contents lying around it like the discarded organs of a paper man.
"This place is a mess..."
Sighing, she called; "hello?" hoping the owner, or at least an employee was lurking about somewhere, maybe in the back room behind the counter. Getting no answer no answer, Kyla began to feel a little irritable.
Who left their business open when they weren't there?
"Hel-lo?" She sang, a sense of annoyance in her soprano voice.
"This is too odd..." walking around the counter to the employee door, she was prepared to go in there and demand service when something chill cut through her. She stiffened, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end like she'd walked through a static curtain as she reach out to open the simple push door.
Backing away from the door, her foot caught something hard, sending it clattering against the base of the counter.
"What the hell...?" she stooped to look at the suspect: a Zippo lighter.
"..."
She grabbed the lighter and flipped it open, still sitting on the floor. She heard the flint scrape against the metal, a tiny sparkle blazing into an orange-yellow flame that flickered fitfully.
An eagle was engraved on both sides of the copper lighter and turning the lighter to the side revealed a simple white emboss that read 'One & Only' in cursive letters.
Biting her lip as she stood, she stuffed the lighter into her pocket.
Reaching into her purse she grabbed the first few bills that looked large enough, hoping they would pay for the gas... and replace the lighter, it didn't look like gas station fare.
Kyla walked out of the gas station briskly and hurried to her car, looking behind her every once in a while as if expecting the absent staff to suddenly materialize and demand the lighter back.
Laying her head back against the headrest when she was back in her car, Kyla closed her eyes for a few seconds before starting the engine. It took a few tries to start the old rust bucket, which seemed to make her feel oddly panicked for reasons she couldn't quiet place, but turned over eventually.
"I hate this hunk a' junk..." the green eyed brunette mumbled, "Chris… you suck."
She drove out of the gas station and into the empty road. Visibility was still near zero, but Kyla had no trouble focusing on the road this time. It beat having to relive the crawling sense of dread that had lingered on with her.
Forced to a crawl here on the public streets she peered through the rain, occasionally finding her eyes drawn to her mirror, half expecting to find someone waiting for her to notice them in the backseat.
She had never seen so much rain in her life – not even back home in Chicago.
Up ahead a tacky neon sign proclaimed that 'Jack's Inn' was close by. She thanked the heavens and pulled into the parking lot.
"Someone better be here…"
Struggling from her seat, she parked the car next to the Inn Office, disheartened to see that another place seemed to have forgotten to pay its electric bill, the double story structure as dark and silent as the gas station, except for one small light shining like a beacon from the reception office.
She sighed in relief as she saw a silhouette of a man in the small light – most likely a candle he had lit up to bolster the failing illuminations of the simple lights overhead.
Setting the car in park and gathering her keys as she braced herself for the onslaught of icy water, a quick dash took her to the safety of the reception doorway.
As she reached the doorway, her hand was already stretched out, wanting inside. A rush of warm air greeted her from the cramped confines, though a little less body odor coming with it would have been appreciated. Wringing her hair like an old dishcloth, she smiled apologetically at the man sitting behind the pitted and scratched counter as she made a small puddle on his murky green carpet.
"I'm really sorry about that… It's just that it's really wet and-" Kyla stopped as she saw the man raise his hand, his head moving side to side as he read from a smallish book.
"What's up with this town?", she asked when he seemed to have finished his page, "Why aren't the lights on anywhere?"
The man didn't answer her – just continued staring at the yellowed pages. Either it was a truly gripping read, or he was a crappy manager, ignoring a potential customer in a dead place like this.
Gritting her teeth, she glanced around the small reception. The shelves were filled with old books and numbers – obviously for the rooms, as the keys dangled from the hooks beneath them.
"Can I at least get a room…?" She inquired, hoping the man would at least answer for that. All he did was nod wordlessly and point to the keys. "Which room-"
"Whichever, doesn't matter… Not like you'll be here long," The gray haired man answered for her. Her brows rose in annoyance.
"Thanks" Kyla ground out mock sweetly, placing a couple of twenties on the desk whilst walking over to the room keys.
When she didn't get an answer, the brunette turned back around.
"Can you at tell me if anyone else came through recently from out of town?"
He didn't say a word.
Sighing, she cleared her throat loudly so that he would look at her.
"Thanks for the room…"
The owner looked up at her for the first time. His emotionless gray eyes and face took her back to the time when Christopher told her that their parents were…
"Don't mention it. As I said, you won't be here long anyway."
"... Right," Kyla replied with a shaky smile the owner didn't bother to look up for, once more absorbed in whatever he was reading. Leaning back as she made her way toward the door and the rain that lay beyond it, she caught sight of the title.
In Mens Rea VeritasShivering against the lashing rain and wind, the newly drenched brunette ran for the stairs, stopping at her car along the way to retrieve her bags. Flinging the bag over her wet shoulder, she headed to the room.
Shoving the key into the lock and turning it, a slight creaking noise came as the door was pushed open, revealing a small bedroom suite with a door that lead to the bathroom.
The room was dark, of course, but to Kyla's relief, as her eyes adjusted to the gloom inside, there were candles sprawled all over the desk across the room. She sighed, picking her way across the room, wary for things on the floor, low furniture and other items her night vision wouldn't guarantee she would see. Eventually she hit the desk and after a few false tries, was able to light one of the candles, that one soon spreading it's light to a few of the others which she placed around the room.
Taking a candle in her small hand, Kyla walked over to the window, closing the cheap, green curtains next to the already made bed. She set the candle on the nightstand and sat down, fumbling a corner of the pillow.
She shook her white jacket off, hoping the room would be pleasantly warm.
She was wrong.
She placed her jacket on the desks chair, hoping to not have to get up from the uncomfortable bed; however, the bed was better than her car. She smiled as she saw the jacket land on the chair.
Right on target…
She cleared her throat as she swung her legs on the bed, laying her head on the pillow.
For a moment there was only the sound of the rain outside, and her mind began to wander. Inevitably it came back to her reason for being here.
"Chris… where are you?"
Knowing she wouldn't get an answer, she put her hands underneath her head. Closing her eyes, she breathed slowly as she listened to the rain beat against the window – the repeated patter like the comforting murmurs of a gentle guardian.
But even in time even the rain made her think about Chris, the reason she was in this sleepy, quiet little town. Her brother had been missing for almost half a year now. The police had questioned her of course, a kind of angry suspicion lingering under their polite words that had left her glad to be out of the station at the end of it all. However, it had left her none the wiser as to where he could have gone, just feeling guilty for her treatment.
She looked over at the candle nearest the bed, the solitary flicker of the naked flame seeming sinister, as if it was reaching out for something to consume. She shrugged the feeling off, knowing it was probably just the incident at the gas station, leaving her uneasy still.
It was so quiet here– almost too quiet…
And it scared her…